Wireless communication networks are evolving from the second generation (2G) wireless technology to the third generation (3G). Hence, a mobile communication terminal may be provided with both a 2G modem for the 2G communications and a 3G modem for the 3G communications. An example of performing an electronic transaction using the mobile communication terminal equipped with both of the 2G and 3G modems is provided below.
When a mobile communication terminal attempts an electronic transaction with a credit terminal via the 2G mobile communication network, a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) of the mobile communication terminal is used to provide or patch payment information of a user of the mobile communication terminal.
In patching the user payment information, the USIM receives a credit card number corresponding to the user payment information via the 3G-modem. Thereafter, the credit card number is sent to the credit terminal via an IrDA transmitter. Thus, in case of attempting the electronic transaction in a 2G mobile communication network, a 3G modem is needed. Since both the 3G-modem as well as the 2G modem are turned on, power is wasted and the electronic transaction is delayed.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a mobile communication terminal for electronic transaction according to the related art. As shown, a mobile communication terminal for electronic transaction according to a related art consists of a user interface chip 1, a 2G modem 2, a 3G modem 3 and an IrDA transmitter 5.
The 2G modem 2 communicates with a user interface (hereinafter abbreviated UI) chip 1 and performs an electronic transaction on a 2G mobile communication network. The 3G modem communicates with the UI chip 1 and receives user payment information from the USIM 4. The USIM 4 patches the user payment information via the 3G modem 3. And, the IrDA transmitter 5 transmits the user payment information sent from the 3G modem 3 to a credit terminal in an infrared data format.
An electronic transaction process of the above-configured mobile communication terminal according to a related art is provided below with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a process of performing an electronic transaction in a mobile communication terminal according to a related art. As shown, if a user requests to perform an electronic transaction using the mobile communication terminal shown in FIG. 1, the UI chip 1 turns on the 2G and the 3G modem.
In one case, the 3G modem 2 is turned on (S1). Subsequently, the 3G modem reads user payment information from the USIM 4 (S2). Meanwhile, the IrDA transmitter 5 having received the user payment information from the 3G modem 3 transmits the user payment information to the credit terminal 6 in an infrared data format (S3). The credit terminal 6 then processes the corresponding electronic transaction using the user payment information received from the IrDA transmitter 5 (S4).
Unfortunately, in performing the electronic transaction using the related art mobile communication terminal on the 2G mobile communication network, since the 3G modem needs to be turned on as well as the 2G modem, power applied to the mobile communication terminal is wasted and the electronic transaction process is delayed.